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Henry and Ribsy and Beezus

"Henry Huggins" is about curiosity and hunger.

Beverly Cleary--a librarian, in her thirties--noticed that (a) most kids' books were bad and (b) boys could generally tolerate a story about a dog, if nothing else.

"Henry Huggins"--Cleary's debut--concerns an ordinary boy who discovers a dog around the corner. Determined to raise this dog--inspired by the dog, in a vague way--Henry makes some arrangements. He will call his mom for permission. (This requires using a phone book as a stepping stool.) Henry will bring the dog home--in a box--on the bus. When the box breaks, Henry gets off, finds a shopping bag, and ties the dog in wrapping paper. ("This is just a parcel.")

When this, too, fails, Henry rides home in a police car. But: mission accomplished. The dog is now a pet.

There isn't anything especially remarkable about Henry, but you root for him; he has goals, and it's fun to watch a scrappy kid with goals. Exploring a fish obsession means staying home all summer with your jam jars; you've got to be sure that each guppy gets a pinch of food. Moving on from that obsession means doing a capitalist tap dance; you have to persuade your vendor to buy back what he has already sold.

People say, about young great talents: "She's like Athena, popping out of Zeus, already fully-formed." That's true for Beverly Cleary. The humor, the eye for detail, the gift for pacing: They're all present in her very first novel.

I'll keep looking at "Huggins" as Mrs. Cleary's important birthday approaches.....

P.S. Cleary says she set out to write about a girl, not a boy, but Henry's voice became insistent in her head. Other voices followed--scraps of ideas Cleary couldn't abandon. You see that in "Henry Huggins," when a girl called Beezus ("her sister Ramona couldn't say BEATRICE") makes her first appearance......
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